“Siren Songs” published 2025 on bandcamp
“Siren Songs” is a recording of our second concert at the beautiful little art gallery “KunstRaum” in Erlensee, Germany (…which, in the meanwhile, had to move to a new location). It also was our first concert after Covid – or, still at the end of the pandemy – and You can see us wearing masks in some of the photos.
It was also shortly after the outbreak of Russia’s war on Ukraine, and we were still in shock and felt that we had to reflect that in some way in out music. Which we did by starting the concert with the sound of an air-raid siren, and I guess during some of the more somber and mournful passages of our performance.
“Imaginary Rooms” published 2023 on bandcamp
On October 26, 2019 Bridge to Imla performed live at the gallery “Kunstraum” in Erlensee (near Frankfurt), Germany for the first time. The two sets contained only new music, composed (and partly improvised) specifically for the occasion (with the exception of “Greenhouse” which is a live version of Michael Brückner’s 2002 piece “A Thin Line” – however quite different from the original…).
The duo had planned to record the event, however due to an equipment failure, this didn’t work out (…still there * is * a lo-fi recording of most of the concert – except for the final ten minutes – captured with a video camera, that has been added to this release as two digital bonus tracks).
The material seeming too good not to be released, HaDi and Michael decided to produce a studio version instead – which resulted in “Imaginary Rooms”. Most of the recordings and basic mixing already took place in 2019, and was completed and finished in early 2023.
https://bridgetoimla.bandcamp.com/album/imaginary-rooms
“Ambient Chapel” published on bandcamp 2022
With this release, we continue a mini series of concert recordings from 2018 and 2019.
This concert took place on September 28, 2018 at the small Schlosskirche (castle chapel) Rumpenheim.
Like with our first concert earlier this year (see “One January Evening”), our good friend, percussionist and soundscaper Volker Lankow came all the way from Berlin to join us.
While the music was mostly improvised, some sections are based on pieces from our studio albums.
It was the closing event (finissage) of the
„Rumpenheimer Kunsttage“ (Rumpenheim Art Days),
an annual cultural festival near Frankfurt, Germany.
“Lost” published 2021 on bandcamp
Most of the tracks on this album were recorded during the first year of
BRIDGE TO IMLA to introduce our project to the public, even before our debut album „The Radiant Sea“ was released on Winter-Light in late 2017.
https://bridgetoimla.bandcamp.com/album/lost
Live @ Drone Day – Wiesbaden 2018 published 2020 on bandcamp
With this release, we start a mini series of concert recordings from 2018 and 2019.
First in line was our performance at the Drone Day event at a small corner of the Luisenforum (a shopping mall) in Wiesbaden. Organised by young drone artist Robert Krause, our good friend Mathias Brüssel played the opening gig, and our other good friend Mathias Grassow (yes, the drone ambient pioneer!) played the closing one.
In fact, after the mid-way break, the performances were arranged in a seamless flow: HaDi Schmidt started with a solo set under his project name Imaginary Landscape, then Michael Brückner joined in, thus completing Bridge To Imla. After that set, HaDi left stage and Mathias Grassow entered, to play a track with Michael before he closed a great day of drone with his inspired solo performance.
So, only track 2 “really” is Bridge To Imla, but with one member on each of the other tracks, who’s counting…?
In an article for the Russian online forum KLEM, drone artist and electronic music enthusiast Anton Shafarostov wrote:
“Drone Day – a kind of flash mob for a narrow circle of enthusiasts and fans of drone-music, whose events take place here and there around the world. The idea was conceived by Marie Claire LeBlanc Flanagan from Canada, who travels with her strange cultural and psychological experiences between Canada, San Francisco and Berlin. Drone Day is celebrated annually on the last Saturday of May.
This time, activists from around Frankfurt gathered in the vicinity of Frankfurt, in Wiesbaden for an intercounterfeit – to stand up, hang out and just do something on a Saturday afternoon. The venue was a kind of anti-cafe in a big mall. There were no people in the anti-café for some reason on that day, so we did not disturb anyone and were left to ourselves.”
“In general, the event was actively supported by Michael Brückner, who (…) dragged Grassow there too. (…) The line-up consisted of (…): Mathias Brüssel, Rudolf Krause, sleep_less (Fabienne Schulte), Imaginary Landscape, Bridge to Imla and Mathias Grassow.
Only an audience of 15 to 20 people had gathered, but the room couldn’t have contained more than maybe 30 persons anyway.
But the audience was at full comfort: free drinks, upholstered furniture of various kinds, cool and good sound. Robert Krause should be thanked for all this, who (…) organized everything…”
“The results of this Drone Day, in general, can be considered successful: Robert Krause has already published a recording of his performance at his Bandcamp page, and there is every reason to believe that Grassow will not mind publishing his concert, too.
After the concert Brüssel, Brückner, HaD Schmidt and even Fabienne were quite happy (…) It turned out very smoothly and nicely.”
“One January Evening” published 2018 on bandcamp
This album was recorded live in late January 2018 on an evening of live electronic music featuring
a solo set by synthesist Ralph Baumgartl, (not included in this release, but it was excellent!)
a set by Bridge To Imla – with percussionist Volker lankow on three tracks and finally
a jam session involving all four musicians.
Most of the bonus tracks (see below) were recorded at a rehearsal by Michael Brückner
and Hans-Dieter Schmidt one week prior to the event, except for…
…the studio version of „The Dream-Quest To Unknown Imla“ which Michael insisted on doing, because
he had messed up his melotron flute solo at the concert when he looked into a blue laser beamer by mistake. 😉
https://bridgetoimla.bandcamp.com/album/one-january-evening
“The Radiant Sea” published 2018 on bandcamp (Winter-light)
Winter-Light is extremely happy to welcome the duo ‘Bridge To Imla’ to our label, for their first full length album ‘The Radiant Sea’.
Bridge To Imla is the duo of Hans-Dieter Schmidt and Michael Brückner, created in 2017 to distinguish their particular style of cinematic ambient from their respective solo projects. Hans-Dieter and Michael initially met at ambient group improvisations by the Frankfurt based EK-Lounge community around 2010, and had already collaborated previously on several occasions.
The origins of the album go back to August 2013, when Michael Brückner produced a dark ambient track called “All The Weight Of The Sun” for a compilation by Jack Hertz’ label Aural Films called “Fukushima Drones” that dealt with the (then recent) nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan. Whilst working on that track, Michael created hours of different soundscapes, most of which remained unused. Later that same year, Hans-Dieter and Michael started to make plans for recording an album together, and those unused soundscapes then formed the raw material for what finally became “The Radiant Sea”. Expanding on the original theme of ecological concern, the album is both a contemplation about the current pollution of the Pacific ocean – not only caused by the Fukushima disaster, but by human influence in general – and is also a praise of the beauty of our planet’s biggest ocean…
The album is a rich woven tapestry of dark ambient soundscapes and deep electronics mixed with more traditional instruments. It will pull you across the vast stretches of the mighty Pacific Ocean, dragging you down to it’s murky depths and across it’s vast plains before depositing you in to the deep trenches and ridges that lurk there. Polluted by radiation and man’s indifference to nature, ‘The Radiant Sea’ continues in its struggle to restore the balance and maintain its beauty and dignity.
When it came to the question of who should master the album,’Bridge To Imla’ had already set their sights high and had just one person in mind; the ambient composer and mastering engineer Robert Rich. With over four decades of musical experience and knowledge to bring to the studio, Robert has applied his ears and talents to “The Radiant Sea’ and finely tuned and polished the tracks to bring out the best ambient feel and experience for the listener. We are extremely happy with the final results, as of course, are ‘Bridge To Imla’. We would like to say a big thank you to Robert, for doing such wonderful work. A true “master” craftsman.